Editing Reindeer (section)

=== Distribution and habitat ===
[[File:20070818-0001-strolling reindeer.jpg|thumb|Sweden|alt=Walking in Sweden]]
[[File:Rennes d'élevage, mais en liberté, près de Suomussalmi. - panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[Suomussalmi]], Finland]]
[[File:Reindeer of Mongolia 02.jpg|thumb|Near [[Lake Khövsgöl]] in Mongolia]]
{{main|Reindeer distribution}}
Originally, the reindeer was found in [[Scandinavia]], [[Eastern Europe]], [[Greenland]], Russia, [[Mongolia]] and northern China north of the [[50th parallel north|50th latitude]]. In North America, it was found in Canada, [[Alaska]], and the northern [[contiguous United States]] from [[Maine]] to [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. In the 19th century, it was still present in southern [[Idaho]].<ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021" /> Even in historical times, it probably occurred naturally in [[Ireland]], and it is believed to have lived in [[Scotland]] until the 12th century, when the last reindeer were hunted in [[Orkney]].<ref name=Watson>{{cite news | last = Watson | first = Jeremy | date = 12 October 2006 | title = Sea eagle spreads its wings&nbsp;... | location = Edinburgh | newspaper = Scotland on Sunday}}</ref> During the [[Late Pleistocene]] Epoch, reindeer occurred further south in North America, such as in [[Nevada]], [[Tennessee]], and [[Alabama]],<ref>C. S. Churcher, P. W. Parmalee, G. L. Bell, and J. P. Lamb, 1989, [https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/z89-175 Caribou from the Late Pleistocene of northwestern Alabama], [[Canadian Journal of Zoology]]</ref> and as far south as [[Spain]] in Europe.<ref name="walker"/><ref>{{cite journal
|author1=Sommer, R. S. |author2=Nadachowski, A.
 |name-list-style=amp |title=Glacial refugia of mammals in Europe: evidence from fossil records
|journal=Mammal Rev
|year=2006
|volume=36
|issue=4
|pages=251–265
|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2907.2006.00093.x|bibcode=2006MamRv..36..251S
 }}</ref> Though their range retreated northwards during the terminal Pleistocene, reindeer returned to Northern Europe during the [[Younger Dryas]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rivals |first1=Florent |last2=Drucker |first2=Dorothée G. |last3=Weber |first3=Mara-Julia |last4=Audouze |first4=Françoise |last5=Enloe |first5=James G. |date=6 April 2020 |title=Dietary traits and habitats of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) during the Late Glacial of Northern Europe |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12520-020-01052-y |journal=[[Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences]] |language=en |volume=12 |issue=5 |page=98 |doi=10.1007/s12520-020-01052-y |bibcode=2020ArAnS..12...98R |issn=1866-9557 |access-date=19 April 2024}}</ref> Today, wild reindeer have disappeared from these areas, especially from the southern parts, where it vanished almost everywhere. Large populations of wild reindeer are still found in [[Norway]], [[Finland]], [[Siberia]], Greenland, Alaska and Canada.

According to Grubb (2005), ''Rangifer'' is "circumboreal in the tundra and taiga" from "Svalbard, Norway, Finland, Russia, Alaska (USA) and Canada including most Arctic islands, and Greenland, south to northern [[Mongolia]], [[China]] (Inner Mongolia),<ref>{{cite news|title=Reindeer Ewenki: China's Last Reindeer-Herding Tribe|last=Wang|first=Wei|date=2021-01-25|work=China Today|location=Beijing, China|url=http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/sl/202101/t20210125_800233637.html|access-date=2021-09-07}}</ref> [[Sakhalin|Sakhalin Island]], and USA (northern Idaho and Great Lakes region)." Reindeer were introduced to, and are feral in, "Iceland, [[Kerguelen Islands]], [[South Georgia|South Georgia Island]], [[Pribilof Islands]], [[St. Matthew Island]]";<ref name="MSW3" /> a free-ranging semi-domesticated herd is also present in Scotland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk/ |title=Home – The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd |publisher=Cairngormreindeer.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2022-02-16}}</ref>

There is strong regional variation in ''Rangifer'' herd size. There are large population differences among individual herds and the size of individual herds has varied greatly since 1970. The largest of all herds (in Taimyr, Russia) has varied between 400,000 and 1,000,000; the second largest herd (at the George River in Canada) has varied between 28,000 and 385,000.

While ''Rangifer'' is a widespread and numerous genus in the northern [[Holarctic realm|Holarctic]], being present in both [[tundra]] and [[taiga]] (boreal forest),<ref name=walker>{{cite book
|title=Walker's Mammals of the World
|year=1999
|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]
|location=[[Baltimore]]
|isbn=978-0-8018-5789-8
|pages=1128–1130
|edition=6th
|volume=2
|editor=Novak, R. M.}}</ref> by 2013, many herds had "unusually low numbers" and their winter ranges in particular were smaller than they used to be.<ref name=NOAA2013 /> Caribou and reindeer numbers have fluctuated historically, but many herds are in decline across their range.<ref name="Walker2009">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8094000/8094036.stm |last=Walker|first=Matt |publisher=BBC |date=11 June 2009 |website=Earth News|title=Reindeer herds in global decline|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103172521/http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8094000/8094036.stm |archive-date=3 January 2012 |access-date=16 September 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> This global decline is linked to [[climate change]] for northern migratory herds and industrial disturbance of habitat for non-migratory herds.<ref name="Vors-Boyce-2009">
{{cite journal |last1=Vors |first1=L. S. |last2=Boyce |first2=M. S. |year=2009 |title=Global declines of caribou and reindeer |journal=[[Global Change Biology]] |volume=15 |issue=11 |pages=2626–2633 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01974.x |bibcode=2009GCBio..15.2626V |s2cid=86111815 |issn=1354-1013}}
</ref> [[Barren-ground caribou]] are susceptible to the effects of [[climate change]] due to a [[Match/mismatch|mismatch]] in the [[Phenology|phenological]] process between the availability of food during the calving period.<ref name="Joly Wasser Booth 2015"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Le Corre |first1=Mael |last2=Dussault |first2=Christian |last3=Côté |first3=Steeve D. |date=8 February 2017 |title=Weather conditions and variation in timing of spring and fall migrations of migratory caribou |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |language=en |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=260–271 |issn=0022-2372 |doi=10.1093/jmammal/gyw177 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bastille-Rousseau |first1=Guillaume |last2=Schaefer |first2=James A. |last3=Lewis |first3=Keith P. |last4=Mumma |first4=Matthew A. |last5=Ellington |first5=E. Hance |last6=Rayl |first6=Nathaniel D. |last7=Mahoney |first7=Shane P. |last8=Pouliot |first8=Darren |last9=Murray |first9=Dennis L. |date=1 March 2016 |title=Phase-dependent climate–predator interactions explain three decades of variation in neonatal caribou survival |journal=Journal of Animal Ecology |language=en |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=445–456 |doi=10.1111/1365-2656.12466 |pmid=26529139 |bibcode=2016JAnEc..85..445B |issn=1365-2656 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In November 2016, it was reported that more than 81,000 [[reindeer in Russia]] had died as a result of climate change. Longer autumns, leading to increased amounts of freezing rain, created a few inches of ice over [[lichen]], causing many reindeer to starve to death.<ref>Gurino, Ben (16 January 2016) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/16/starvation-killed-80000-reindeer-after-unusual-arctic-rains-cut-off-the-animals-food-supply/ Starvation killed 80,000 reindeer after unusual Arctic rains cut off the animals' food supply] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206000859/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/16/starvation-killed-80000-reindeer-after-unusual-arctic-rains-cut-off-the-animals-food-supply/ |date=6 December 2016 }}. ''The Washington Post''</ref>